Aims and benefits

Although refugees in Germany are at high risk to suffer from psychological stress or mental illness, only a fraction of those affected receive appropriate psychotherapeutic treatment. The I-Reach consortium aims to close this gap by developing both easily accessible and culturally adapted diagnostic tools and therapeutic interventions.

Already prior to the actual therapy, psychotherapeutic treatment is often complicated by the scarcity of diagnostic instruments that are suitable in terms of language and culture. Subproject 1 will therefore develop a culture-sensitive diagnostic tool in several languages to assess the presence of mental health disorders in refugees (see SP1).

Subproject 2 deals with the cultural and contextual adaptation of a transdiagnostic intervention, to be offered both online and face-to-face for refugees suffering from trauma-related symptoms (see SP2).

Is online therapy actually effective? This will be evaluated in another subproject when the effectiveness of the online intervention is compared with its face-to-face equivalent (see SP3). Moreover, the suitability of the online intervention as a supplement to inpatient treatment will be assessed in cooperation with a network of German hospitals (see SP4). Finally, the 4 sub-projects mentioned above will be reviewed with regard to their cost effectiveness.

  • Development and evaluation of a culture-sensitive online screening tool to examine mental health in refugees
  • Deployment of a culture-sensitive transdiagnostic intervention for Arabic-speaking refugees, both online and face-to-face
  • Evaluation of the efficacy and suitability of CETA as (1) face-to-face treatment, (2) app-based intervention and (3) app-based supplement to inpatient treatment.

Kontakt

Project duration

Until February 2024

Projects

Planning
Implementation
Completion

SP1: Development of an online tool to assess psychological distress in refugees

Short description

Reliable and culturally adjusted psychodiagnostic instruments (e.g. questionnaires, standardised interviews) are urgently needed in the psychosocial care of and research with refugees. Therefore, subproject 1 develops and evaluates a modular, online-based tool providing free and open source psychodiagnostics instruments in the languages most relevant to the current refugee population.

Location: Leipzig

Project details
Planning
Implementation
Completion

SP2: Developing a transdiagnostic (online-) intervention for refugees in Germany

Short description

This subproject comprises the cultural adaptation of a transdiagnostic treatment program for Arabic-speaking refugees in Germany. The „Common Elements Treatment Approach“ (short: CETA) addresses psychological problems that are particularly common in refugees (e.g. anxiety, trauma-related symptoms). Next, a digital equivalent of the CETA intervention will be developed in cooperation with refugees and other relevant stakeholders: the ALMAMAR-App.

Location: Berlin

Project details
Planning
Implementation
Completion

SP3: Internet-based versus face-to-face transdiagnostic treatment for mental health problems in Arabic-speaking refugees

Short description

The subproject I-REACH SP3 investigates the effectiveness of a psychotherapeutic treatment for Arabic-speaking refugees and migrants, which is being applied for the first time in the German context. The intervention called ALMAMAR is either delivered internet-based or face-to-face. In the study we want to find out whether this intervention helps Arabic-speaking people who suffer from psychological stress.

Location: Berlin

Refugees can participate: Yes
Target audience: Arabisch- und farsisprachige Personen ab 18 mit Wohnsitz in Berlin oder Brandenburg
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Project details
Planning
Implementation
Completion

SP4: Implementation of the ALMAMAR app for refugees in inpatient psychiatric care

Short description

The subproject I-REACH SP4 investigates the implementation of a blended-care approach in inpatient psychiatric-psychotherapeutic care of refugees with mental illness. With blended-care we describe the combination of face-to-face treatment and parallel use of internet-based therapeutic elements. For this purpose, internet-based psychotherapeutic elements in the mother tongue are offered in addition to treatment as usual in the participating psychiatric clinics for Arabic and Farsi speaking patients (intervention group). Acceptance and satisfaction are evaluated with the offered treatment and treatment results are compared to a control group (treatment as usual).

Location: Cologne

Project details